Nicola Sturgeon, the ‘nippy sweetie’ with an impish charm, disarms the critics

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Nicola Sturgeon is, in the present climate, that most unusual of creatures — the female politician who has grown more endearing the better we get to know her. In five years the deputy leader of the SNP government has gone from being perceived as the kind of woman the Scots call a nippy sweetie — spikey and lacking in humour — to someone who impresses even her enemies with her competence and an impish sense of humour. Charm, she has discovered, is the most effective political weapon of all.